Nothing In Excess

Nothing in Excess (the second Delphic maxim of Apollo) A mixture of the brute and the divine Man is, That’s why the strife in his soul never Ends, As the eternal adversaries for superiority Strive, In the depths of everyone’s divided Heart, ---------- The brute: Limited by the dimensions of space and Time, Intimidated by the oppressive notion of cruel Alienation, Frightened by the savage idea of inglorious Temporality, And horrified by the torturous thought of merciless Mortality, Eager to pull man down to the material world Desires, And with the heavy chains of bodily pleasures Him to tie! ---------- The divine: Unrestricted by the dimensions of space and Time, Animated by the lofty idea of unity with The ONE, Strengthened by the noble thought of clement Eternity And exalted by the gracious conception of Comforting immortality, To raise Man to the immaterial heavens Yearns, And with the purified delights of spirit him, To nourish! ----------- When the ruthless brute, victorious from the Battle emerges And body’s barbaric cry of victory Shouts, Benign spirit, inside the prison of here and now Is found, From where, silently, the devastation of divinity, Observes. ----------- When eternal spirit triumphant out of the war Appears, And the illumination of the soul, jubilantly, Proclaims, The perishable brute, even from its basic needs, Is deprived, Thus, slowly, painfully, and persistently is fainting, Away. ------------- Only when the brute and the divine a truce Declare And their powers under the banner of universal Reason unite Rendering to each other, at the proper time, Its equal share, Harmony is established in our souls and the Human is born! © Demetrios Trifiatis